got and installed a bike rack so i don't have to wear a backpack and have a super sweaty back in the summertime when transporting heavy petanque balls or croquet or wine etc.

success

delicious looking Korean tofu Jen made that i never got to eat any of cuz she took it to some ladies brunch at Virginia's house. i probably ended up eating pringles and some dirt i found in the corner.

the whole time we've been living in South Slope we've seen 2 huge condo buildings going up blocking our view of the Hudson river and the statue of liberty. Jen was walking home from work 2 days before this community meeting and saw this sign someone taped up which is when the whole neighborhood learned those are no moons, they are going to be two huge homeless shelters (catch the star wars reference?). Now the entire neighborhood is in the biggest wokeness test of their lives and everyone is feeling NIMBY. At the meeting they said by law they only have to tell the community 30 days before any shelters open which makes sense because judging from the reaction, no greater societal good would ever be achieved if left to the general public. Everyone would vote down having a homeless shelter in their hood. I felt the question was not really addressed of why does our neighborhood have to have not 1 but 2 huge homeless shelters literally across the street from each other (and at the end of our block). Keep in mind that the poorer parts of Brooklyn have the highest concentration of homeless shelters and there's even a neighborhood in east new york that has 4 so to them, South Slope people don't have a lot to complain about. I think everyone is a good person and everyone at the meeting said we don't have anything against homeless people and want to help but then they were also very Not In My Back Yard about it all and i'm conflicted as well cuz I feel some NIMBY just like the rest of them.

line going around the corner to get into the meeting.

I guess politicians would be dumb not to show up to hand these out to a captive audience such as us standing in line

So it was over 2 hours of the agency that runs NYC homeless shelters DHS, NYC council member Brad Landers, and Nydia Velasquez (who was VERY spicy and annoyed and mad at everyone) getting shouted at and people voicing their concerns and fears, ultimately to no avail because it's all a done deal. There were many complaints about the city paying more than they should have to the developers of these condo buildings despite the construction problems and violations, which to me of course is a problem but seems more like thinly veiled excuses to rail agains the shelters being in their backyards. The same concern about kids from the homeless shelters over populating the already strained schools kept being asked over and over to which the answer was the data shows that most kids continue going to school in the district they came from not where their new shelter is. Also they said that the property value of homes doesnt drop and the crime rate doesnt go up. Well you can imagine everyone had a hard time believing that because data isn't a very visceral thing but the image of 250+ units filled with homeless families is. These shelters are also for homeless families with children and mothers with children which should put some people at ease but not really cuz NIMBY is a powerful and human thing. So basically the poor Dept of Homeless Services people just got berated the whole time and there was heckling, booing, yelling, and generally gross human behavior which I can understand all sides of. Peeps are scared for their safety, kids scarce educational access, property values, strangers in their neighborhood, and lots of other stuff. Jen and I have all of that going on too. One guy stood up and said shame on all of you that have Syrian refugees welcome signs in your windows but now that these shelters are coming you've changed your tune. He got booed and yelled at, the mother of a hispanic family near us said I hope he's not our neighbor in a brooklyn accent. Another guy said he had concerns but welcomes the shelter and what can we do to help which got some claps but they were pretty much the only 2 people who were pro shelter. So I guess all that happens now is people got to shout and we will all just go back to to South Slope to take our medicine and some will continue to post on various park slope message boards with no hope for change.

This guy lives a few doors down from the shelters and has POW MIA stickers in the window and wears leather Harley Davidson vests and is here voicing his concerns. The other sunday I saw him walking down the street with a priests collar on giving me a you can't judge a book by its cover moment.

as people leave angrily or tired out I'm left feeling like there's nothing to do but take the medicine and it sucks that its two huge condo building sized spoonfuls of it instead of just one or none but this kind of societal good would never happen if left to a neighborhood vote. It still sucks though.

to round out my civic duty we went to superiority burger and I got the impossible burger (meatless plant based) and it was ok. It was like eating a whopper or something, you probably couldn't tell, but you could tell it wasn't a flame grilled $20 burger from somewhere fancy. Also Superiority Burger gets a thumbs down from me and maybe the impossible burger is better in a different establishments hands. If they can make plant based meat cheaper that would be great cuz this definitely is decent.

We went afterwork to the Guggenheim

Hilma af Klint (Swedish) was the big draw and it was the last day of her show so there were a lot of people there. What a crowd it was, there were lots of weirdos, lots of attractive weirdos, and almost no stereotypical people that don't vibe with creative types ie finance bros

a plate full of chicken katsu where i couldn't get the color balance right so it looks less good.

Current Location

New York, New York

More about me

I was on an adventure around the world that ended up being 5 years. I lived 1.5 yrs in Beijing from June '08, 1.5 yrs in Tokyo from Sept '09, Barcelona for 3 months in summer '11, 5 months in London from August '11, NYC for 3 months, 2 month Asia trip, NYC for summer 2012, 1 year in Paris until Fall '13 (I got an artist's visa!), and now live in back in NYC. I am a freelance Illustrator working for magazines, newspapers, advertising, publishing, etc...www.JasonRaish.com